Can this trio drive 70?

Mark Camps

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 6, 2003

It's high time someone came up with an appropriate nickname. The Big Three is a nice moniker for the A'sTim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito (listed alphabetically and by age so as not to offend), but it certainly isn't zippy or clever enough for the best threesome the game has seen in decades.

Before we embarrass ourselves coming up with ludicrous marketing angles -- "The Three Strikes (and You're Out) Gang," a California prison theme -- let's just say that these three have a chance to go where few big league pitchers have gone before. Last season, they combined for 57 wins, and that was with Mulder spending a month on the disabled list. Still, their 57 wins were the most by an AL threesome since the 1990 A's trio of Bob Welch (27), Dave Stewart (22) and Scott Sanderson (17) combined for 66.

Each member of the "Three Strike Gang" has the potential to win at least 20,

but that's been done by a staff many times before -- most recently in 1973 when the A's had three. But three pitchers on one team haven't combined for 70 wins in 72 years: The 1931 A's -- Lefty Grove (31), George Earnshaw (21) and Rube Walberg (20) -- were the last to do it.

Is 70 too lofty a goal? Not for these young guns -- hey, there's a catchy nickname. Here are a few other staff facts worth shooting for:

-- Most wins by a threesome since 1931: 68 by 1970 Orioles (Mike Cuellar 24,

-- In the past 90 years, only one staff has had three pitchers with at least 22 wins: 1952 Indians (Early Wynn 23, Mike Garcia 22 and Bob Lemon 22).

TRIVIA QUESTION: Who is the last Hall of Famer to hit 50 home runs in a season?

FIRST-GAME FACTS: Until Alex Rodriguez hit a home run (No. 299) on Sunday, he was the active leader in most home runs without one on Opening Day. Now that honor belongs to the Dodgers' Shawn Green, who has 235 homers.

-- Jeff Bagwell became the first Houston player to hit two home runs on Opening Day since Roman Mejias did it in 1962 for the Houston Colt .45s. Bagwell now has five in openers in his career. Only one active player has more:

-- The Cubs' 13-run victory over the Mets was the most lopsided opener since 1951 (White Sox 17, Browns 3). The most lopsided opener ever was a 15- run victory in 1912, an 18-3 demolition by the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Superbas.

-- Ray Durham's leadoff homer in the opener was the fourth in Giants history, the first since Gary Thomasson connected off Don Sutton in 1977. The other two: Bill Rigney 1949 and George Browne 1903. According to Retrosheet. org, the Giants had been 0-3 in openers in which they had a leadoff HR until Monday's 5-2 victory over the Padres.

-- Alfonso Soriano's grand slam on Monday was the first by a Yankee in an opener since Bobby Murcer hit a pinch-hit slam against the Rangers in 1981.

X-TRA UNIQUE: Xavier Nady, the former Cal standout and current Padres outfielder became the first player to hit a home run whose name -- first or last -- started with an X. According to historian David Vincent, there have been only two other X-men in baseball: Xavier Hernandez (pitcher for the Blue Jays, Astros, Reds, Yankees and Rangers from 1989-98) and Xavier Rescigno (pitcher for the Pirates from 1943-45).

RANDOM NUMBERS: Cleveland manager Eric Wedge was 35 years and 64 days old when the Indians opened the season. He was the youngest manager since 1985 when Bobby Valentine managed his first game with the Rangers at the age of 35 years, 5 days. . . . Indians left-hander C.C. Sabathia (22 years, 8 months) was the youngest Opening Day starter in the majors since Dwight Gooden (21 years, 4 1/2 months) in 1986. . . . Kansas City's Runelvys Hernandez (24 years,

11 months) was the youngest Opening Day pitcher for the Royals since Kevin Appier (24 years, 4 months) in 1992. . . . The record for most career home runs in March is 2, held by Corey Patterson and Vinny Castilla.

TRIVIA ANSWER: The last Hall of Famer to hit 50 home runs in a season was Willie Mays, who hit 52 in 1965.

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